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Suspicious Package Prompts 8-Hour Vigil at B'nai B'rith

The Fire Department sealed off the world headquarters of B'nai B'rith for eight hours today, with 108 people inside, after a mail room employee noticed a foul odor emanating from an envelope marked ''anthrachs,'' a misspelling apparently referring to an often fatal bacterium.

After testing the red, jellylike substance, the authorities determined that it was ''not life-threatening,'' and everyone was allowed to leave the building. Law-enforcement officials said they still did not know what was in a laboratory dish in the 8-by-10-inch envelope.

Even when the incident began, the authorities said they did not believe the substance was anthrax. But Alvin T. Carter, a battalion chief in the District of Columbia Fire Department, said the people inside the building would remain there ''until we know what it is.'' The envelope was tested at the Naval Medical Research Institute, in Bethesda, Md.

Two B'nai B'rith employees said they had respiratory problems, but neither was admitted to a hospital. Chief Carter said one person had been taken to a hospital for ''an ordinary medical emergency.''

Ori Soltes, the director of the National Jewish Museum, which is on the first floor of the building, said the mail room employee who had opened the package ''started to feel woozy.'' The package was discovered about 11:30 A.M.

The police cordoned off the area around the building, which is five blocks north of the White House, and closed Massachusetts and Rhode Island Avenues, both major thoroughfares.

Mr. Soltes, who slipped out of the building around the Fire Department cordon, said people in the building reported that there was a two-page letter with the package, but he did not know what was in it. Federal law-enforcement officials confirmed that there was a two-page letter, and that in it, a group took responsibility for sending the package. They would not identify the group.

The building houses B'nai B'rith's social and cultural activities. The Anti-Defamation League, which is nominally affiliated with B'nai B'rith, is not in the building.

The building, on Rhode Island Avenue near Connecticut Avenue, normally has heavy security. In March 1977, more than 100 people inside were held hostage for more than 24 hours by gunmen of the Hanafi Muslim sect, who also took over the District's City Hall and a mosque.